Iceland’s Constitutional Council, composed of 25 ordinary citizens publicly elected by their peers, has submitted its draft constitution he to the Althingi, the country’s parliament. The Council had posted the draft constitution on the net in April, and worked through many re-drafts in response to 3600 written comments from the public. As one might expect,

The Tokyo District Court rejected an attempt by Tokyo schoolteachers to nullify the punishments they received for refusing to participate in ceremonies involving the national anthem. This is consistent with the earlier Suphttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrme Court decisions we noted here as well a more recent decision by the Supreme Court in July that rejected similar appeals from

The Tokyo District Court rejected an attempt by Tokyo schoolteachers to nullify the punishments they received for refusing to participate in ceremonies involving the national anthem. This is consistent with the earlier Suphttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrme Court decisions we noted here as well a more recent decision by the Supreme Court in July that rejected similar appeals from

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has been talking about modifying the Constitution to extend his term in office, joining a long series of African “democrats” who came in as reformers but found presidential trappings to be quite comfortable. Wade, who was a longtime opposition leader, was originally elected to a seven year term, renewable once,

On the lighter side of the news: according to this report, owing to a slight omission in the drafting of North Dakota’s constitution (namely, the omission of a requirement that state officials take an oath of office), it is questionable whether North Dakota is legally a state. The report mentions the existence of a conflict

Following last week’s general elections in Thailand, the losing Democrat Party has asked Thailand’s Constitutional Court to dissolve the winning Pheu Thai party. Thailand’s Constitutional Court, like a number of other specialized constitutional courts (e.g., Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey), has the constitutional power and responsibility to rule upon the lawfulness of political parties (per

Morocco’s new Constitution was overwhelmingly approved by voters in a referndum on Friday, followed by celebrations. As such, the Arab Spring (now Summer?) has its first (mostly) bloodless transition, from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Among other things, the new document recognizes Tamazight (the original language of pre-Arab North Africa) as an official language,

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